


Growing

by Squikkums



Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), Guardians of the Galaxy - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Fix-It, Friendship, Gen, Post-Movie, Spoilers for Comic: Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy Prelude 02 (2014)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-11
Updated: 2014-08-11
Packaged: 2018-02-12 16:07:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,865
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2116173
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Squikkums/pseuds/Squikkums
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Time stuck in the Milano was something that Rocket had been actively trying to avoid, but when the ship breaks down there's nothing to distract him from remembering his ill-considered crash through the front of Ronan's ship, and the events that followed, for long.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Growing

**Author's Note:**

> A huge thank you to Aristotle for the beta! I might never have posted this without your help. Any remaining mistakes are my own.

"Flarking Nova Corps mechanics! I should shove this shitty Xandarian garbage right up their stuck up asses!" Rocket snarled as he ripped the wires away from the smoking machine.

"Fixing the ship was a nice gesture." Gamora pursed her lips and stared out the cockpit window at the vast emptiness around them, then looked back at Rocket when he glared up at her, his nimble fingers twisting and turning the smoking heat sync in his hands.

"You barely believe that, don't stand up for their mechanics just because their government cleared our records." His fingers worked to gently slip the melted coils away from the main body of the device. He cracked open the seam in the side deftly to expose the tangle of wires beneath and jerked his nose towards the desolate view in front of them.

"You know there's nothing out there. If I don't have the materials to fix this on board we're-"

"We'll be fine, we can send out a distress signal if we need to and we won't need to since you'll be able to fix it. Don't borrow trouble Rocket." Peter Quill's voice drifted up the ladder behind them before his head popped up into view.

Rocket glanced down at the exposed wires and ruined coils in his grasp before looking back up at Quill and smirking. He snicked his claw through the wire and tossed a shredded piece away, twisting the loose ends together and twirling a fuser around the mended wire to smooth the connection.

"Your absolute faith in me makes my little heart pound Quill, really it does."

"I'm just glad you know something about Xandarian tech and caught that overheating problem before it burned out something expensive." Peter reached over and flicked Rocket in the ear, laughing and flinching back as Rocket snapped at his hand and snarled while tossing a little piece of metal that was melted to the point of being unrecognisable behind him into a pile of other mangled bits of coil.

"Yeah yeah, I know I'm wonderful. But really, I think I'm going to need to re-mold a few of these coils;  these melted pieces of shit won't fit any more. Once that's done we can limp our way to the closest dry dock and get a replacement, but it's gonna take some time."

Time stuck in the Milano was something that Rocket had been actively trying to avoid ever since Groot had grown large enough and strong enough to stray from the little garden Rocket had put together for him in the glass enclosed observation room at the top of the ship. He could barely meet Groot's eyes any more, and spent all of his time with him working constantly on the garden. The tiny sprinklers resting at the edges of the rich soil and the reflective panels that filled the room with dazzling beams of light from the nearby stars were never enough to distract him from remembering, in terrible detail, his ill-considered crash through the front of Ronan's ship and the events that followed for long.

It was easy to find some excuse to leave the garden when his constantly looping memories and self-loathing got to be too much and he could no longer bear to stay so close to his friend, but with Groot becoming increasingly more mobile Rocket had taken to spending most nights drinking at the seediest bar he could find, trying to drown out the feel of Groot's branch trailing along his cheek before their horrible crash.

He never let himself remember that moment for long, how could he when Groot's sacrifice was his fault? He'd flown headlong into that monstrosity of a ship without a thought beyond stopping Ronan when he and the rest of the Guardians realised that the hadron enforcer wasn't going to cut it (and all for nothing since the flarking crash didn't even kill the bastard). He didn't deserve the comfort Groot had offered then and he didn't deserve this second chance with him now, but knowing that couldn't keep him away for long. He always came stumbling back to the Milano, stinking of drink and occasionally bruised and bleeding from picking a fight. But back nonetheless to curl up in the cleared out storage nook below the observation deck cum garden that he had claimed for his own on the too-small-for-one-let-alone-five-people ship.

It was there that Rocket went now, after tasking Quill and Gamora with finding all of the other Xandarian tech in the ship so it could be checked for compatibility. The repairs couldn't continue until he had perfected the digital model of the most intact cooling coil left. The sooner he did that the sooner they could get back to some kind of civilization.

Peter stared after his friend before glancing over at Gamora and sharing a worried look. He knew that something was eating at Rocket, and seeing Groot totter around the ship mournfully every night before heading back to the converted observation room when his limited energy ran dry made it damn clear to him the who, if not the what of Rocket's guilt.

Rocket swiped one hand angrily down the component model on the screen in his lap, he absolutely hated not having physical access to the parts when building, he wouldn't really know the part was right until he could turn it over in his hands, really feel it... But who was he kidding, it was his concentration that was really shot. He'd caught himself staring up through the riot of colour and texture draped around the mesh ceiling of his hidey hole to where he knew Groot was. Every time he looked away from the component model he lost his train of thought.

"Well you can fuck right off then," Rocket told the model, tossing the screen onto a pile of clothes and pillows in the corner after sending the file to be replicated. If the template wasn't to spec he'd know when it was done and he could get his hands on the model.

Groot's garden could do with more fertilizer anyways, he thought. The big oaf was sprouting like a weed, and Rocket would be damned if the nutrients he needed to keep growing weren't there for him.

"Suck it up Rocket, Groot needs your help, and you won't fail him again." Rocket gulped in a deep breath and blew it out before marching out of his room and up the ladder just outside the curtained entrance he and Drax had put together to block his room from the little hallway leading to the ship's mess.

 

~~~~~~~~~~

 

"I am Groot!"

Rocket heard the sound of Groot's deep, rumbling laughter. Drax's fist was beating into the loamy soil above him as he choked out his story through his giggles.

"And then... she picked him right off the ground and just... tossed him into the river!" Drax's voice was strained with laughter and Groot hummed another pleased sound along with him. Rocket paused and closed his eyes as he listened to his friend's laughter, still not as deep as it would be when Groot had returned to his full size but wonderful to hear nonetheless. Rocket popped open the grate to the garden and hopped into the room.

"Who got pushed into a lake and why did they deserve it?"

Groot smiled widely at Rocket, gesturing him over and intoning "I am Groot." as he did. Rocket smirked, "Your wife sounds like a bad ass lady Drax."

Drax glared down at Rocket and angrily went to speak before Rocket interrupted, “She sounds tough, she sounds capable! Metaphor, yeah?”

Drax relaxed back and smiled. It was tinged with sadness but honest nonetheless. "She surely was." The sincerity in his voice was as obvious to Rocket as the meaning behind Groot's words.

Rocket inched his way into the garden and closer to where Groot had dug his roots deep into the nutrient rich soil, listening as Drax finished telling Groot his story.

Groot looked good, better every day. More and more like the powerful, indomitable and solid companion that Rocket had known for so long, and thought he had lost for good.

"I am Groot!" Groot hummed and nudged Rocket with a tendril from his hand. Rocket jumped a little, pulled out of his thoughts, and grinned to cover up his momentary lapse. "Flarkin' right Groot, if we're trading stories Groot and I have got to tell you about our trip to the Hub. Yowza, the money, the weapons we managed to steal from those stuck up pricks!" Rocket's eyes glazed over with remembered greed.

"I am Groot!"

"Yeah, yeah, and the Scallusc family we saved, they paid well too."

"I am Groot." Groot sounded faintly scornful and infinitely patient, and Rocket rolled his eyes and nudged Groot back. "You are such a softy, of course I'm glad they didn't get made into bathroom tiles. You're spoiling the story for Drax. Now he knows they end up safe. Where's the excitement in that?"

"I am Groot." Groot's smile turned abashed and he glanced back at Drax.

Rocket glanced over to Drax as well and twitched his tail from underneath himself so that Groot could brush his tendrils through the matted, greasy fur there, courtesy of his adventures into the bowels of the ship to rip out the useless piece of tech that got them stranded out here.

"Okay Drax, Groot's not much of a tale spinner so let me tell you how this went..."

 

~~~~~~~~~~

 

"And there I was, floating in flarking space with this monster of a gun clutched to my chest and just a helmet between me and nothing, space on one side, guards on the other and running outta heat. And Groot.." Rocket laughed and rubbed at his ear, before Groot extended a branch forward and rubbed away the itch, crooning for Rocket to keep talking. Rockets lips twitched into a smile and he continued.

"Groot smashes open the window above me and reaches out to reel me in, shedding bark like crazy into the non-atmosphere while those krutaking idiots fire wildly into space and I scamper like my tail is on fire up and inside with him. And we just flarkin' book it down this hallway, still hearing these guards screaming their heads off on the floor below-"

"I am Groot."

"Yeah, yeah. And the Scallusc says, ‘Whatever Mr. Ugly is paying, I'll pay double.’ and Groot looks at me like he do, so I grab the Scallusc by the shell as Groot smashes tentacle face straight through the wall!" Rocket wiped at his eyes and laughed along with Drax and Groot, leaning back into the roots behind him.

Quill's voice interrupted the three of them, along with the sound of running feet. "Now Gamora, let's not be hasty! Honestly, I was just trying to reach past you! D’ast woman, I respect you as a person! Stop!"

Drax glanced down at the open grate and sighed before stretching and rising to his feet. "Excuse me my friends, I should try to keep our fearless leader alive, we can speak more at dinner."

"I am Groot." Groot intoned.

Rocket nodded along and called after him, "While you're down there, toss up that bag of fertilizer. Groot needs dinner too."

Groot gently disentangled his vines from Rocket when the bag of fertilizer landed with a thud on the ground near the trapdoor entrance. Rocket immediately missed the closeness, and just as quickly pushed that thought away. He glanced up at Groot surreptitiously and then back to the ground as he walked over and dragged the heavy bag back to the base of Groot's trunk, where his legs had grown deep into the surrounding ground. A quick slash of his claw had the bag spilling it's nutrient rich contents over Groot's roots. Rocket reached out and pushed the dirt forward, spreading it as evenly around Groot as he could, and trying his best to ignore the contrasting texture of rich, moist soil and strong, sturdy bark against the sensitive pads of his hands as he did so. It felt like hours before the bag was empty and the dirt was distributed to his liking, and he could feel Groot's eyes on him the entire time.

"There ya go buddy, you'll be towering over me again in no time. A little sun, a little water and a lot of shit, everything the body needs, am I right?" Rocket winced internally as his mouth ran away on him. He couldn't stand Groot's silent scrutiny though, and finally looked back up, meeting his eyes accidentally but unable to simply look away again.

Groot smiled sadly and reached one hand forward, a tendril of vine extending past that and curling against Rocket's cheek. Rocket froze, his eyes wide and the fur on his back and neck standing on end.

"I am Groot."

Groot's voice broke over Rocket and he jerked backwards, stuttering and glancing down and to the side. "I.. I mean yeah well it isn't really hard to be taller than me, is it? When you can look down on Drax again then that'll really be something, you'll be just as strong as you were-" He stepped further out of reach of Groot's extended limb and his voice stuttered out again, out of his control. "...As you were before I went and forced you to play the hero, yeah?"

Rocket stumbled over the empty bag behind him, and when Groot reached out once more to steady him he snarled and waved the limb away. "I'm fine!"

Groot crooned and pulled his arm back, looking down and breaking eye contact, and Rocket hated himself a little more for putting that look on his best friend's face. He couldn't not try to wipe that expression away.

"Look buddy.. you just keep that growing for you. I need to get back to fixing the Milano. You just enjoy your meal and.." Groot lifted his great head up and looked back at Rocket, who gave a shaky smile and gathered the bag into his arms before peering back up at Groot, meeting his eyes.

"I am Groot."

Rocket's ear twitched but he didn't look away from his friend. "So you say, but I know what I did and what came of that. This ain't like your arm out in space Groot, this is you growing your whole self back, and it's always due to me, isn't it? This is just worse than all them other times.." Rocket held Groot's gaze as his muzzle twisted in self disgust. "How much you do you have to lose before you learn, Groot? I'm bad for you. I should get away while there's still something left to you."

Rocket jumped as Groot coiled his arm around behind him, but didn't try to pull away as he was lifted him up in front of Groot's face.

"I.. Am Groot!"

Rocket's face crumpled and tears filled his eyes. "You know I feel the same buddy.. but I could barely stand being without you.. still can’t.. I didn't think I'd make it after grabbing Drax and that damned stone and I-I was glad."

Groot groaned miserably and coiled his vines tighter up Rocket's body and down his legs, wrapping around his tail and brushing the fur there back the wrong way in the process, sending a shiver up Rocket's spine. His tail twitched in Groot's grasp but he ignored it to reach out and scrabble his claws against Groot's hand to bring it closer so he could grab on tight. "Groot, no! I'm sorry, I.. You're stronger than even I thought. I'd grow you back from a sliver Groot, I wouldn't give up again."

"I am Groot"

Rocket nodded and pulled Groot's hand against his cheek again. "It isn't losing, it's growing." He repeated, and rubbed his cheek against Groot's hand before squirming loose from his slowly loosening grip and scampering up Groot's arm to sit with one leg and his tail curled around Groot's neck, and one hand rubbing restlessly against the bark of Groot's head.

"I.." said Groot, tilting his head gently into Rocket's hand.

"-isn't losing, it's growing, yeah yeah I hear you Groot, I hear you." Rocket sucked in another deep breath and let it out, curling his hand around the rough bark atop Groot's head. "You just keep telling me and I'll just keep trying not to forget."

Groot reached up with a vine again to rub against Rocket's cheek once more as he pulled in his roots, slowly stood and carefully turned his head to smile at his friend.

Rocket huffed but couldn't keep his own smile in check. "Well get a move on then, you've been lazing around up here all day. There's shit to do. I could use your help with the ship repair, and at dinner you and me, we'll finish our story for Drax and the others. We stopped right before we ripped Boss Ugly a new one and escaped with his credits and the Scalluscs both. That ain't no way what that tale should get left, yeah?"

"I am Groot."

"So you say buddy, so you say."

 

**Author's Note:**

> Edit (Aug 13): Hadron enforcer! I watched the movie again to find the name of Rocket's gun and wrote it in instead of just calling it something generic.
> 
> Thanks so much for all your support everyone, this is my first fic so your kind words and koodos mean a lot to me.


End file.
